Hi all! I’m taking time off this week to spend time with family, as I’m sure many of you are too. But I wanted to pop in to share some of my favorite research- and writing-related things I’ve read recently. Perhaps you can find some downtime to enjoy them during the holiday weekend. If so, please consider subscribing to some (or all!) of the newsletters below—you won’t regret it!
Oh, and also, I’m very thankful to all of you for reading BookSmarts 😊 See you in December!
I have been a huge fan of my friend Lizzie’s newsletter for years now. I look forward to reading it every week and I was particularly grateful for this recent post on the non-linear relationship between time, energy, and creativity. It came out just a few days after my post here on not having enough of all three and offered a much-needed glimmer of hope.
I also found Lizzie’s more recent post on transcription very helpful, especially to those of us up to our ears in interviews!
Fellow Portland writer Erika Bolstad has a fantastic newsletter about, well, everything. She posts essays about her frequent travels as well as personal reflections that don’t make it into straight journalistic pieces on subjects like climate change. For our purposes here, I wanted to share her impressive and insightful 10-week plan for feeling out a new book project:
Another Portland writer, Erica Berry, has a wonderful book out called Wolfish, which I highly recommend. I also thoroughly enjoyed this Q&A on Nancy Reddy’s Substack about her “omnivorous” research process.
Here are some other newsletters that I read religiously for their mix of practical and spiritual advice on being a writer:
Last, here are some newsletters by writer friends that I find delightful and inspiring:
Ok, that’s all! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I’m grateful to you for being here!
thanks for the shoutout, julia -- grateful for our friendship and all your great tips in booksmarts 🧡
thanks for sharing this! and thanks especially for the link to Erika Bolstad's project planning process--I'd love to have an actual *process* for thinking through my next book project, instead of wading around in the dark for years. (though there's something to be said for that, too!)